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Hurricane Sandy update: Sandy blows out campaign events

D.C. has a 42 percent chance of feeling tropical storm-force winds in the next few days. | Reuters

The Romney camp has rescheduled the three events it had penciled in for Sunday in Virginia. Instead, Romney will fly Sunday morning to Dayton, Ohio, and link up with his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, for three campaign stops in Celina, Findlay and Marion. The campaign said the change is a cautionary move aimed to ensure that resources would not be diverted due to the storm. Ryan will move on to Florida on Monday.

Late Saturday, the Obama campaign announced that Jill Biden’s events in North Carolina and Pennsylvania on Sunday and Monday have been canceled due to disaster preparation.

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Fugate said FEMA is “not engaged or involved in any of those decisions” at the campaign level for either candidate.

In Kissimmee, Fla., Romney told the crowd to keep those in the hurricane’s path “in your minds and in your hearts. You know how [hard] these hurricanes can be.”

Romney will stay away from the storm on Monday while he campaigns in Iowa, then it’s on to New Hampshire on Tuesday for the first time in weeks, with a stop in Milford, about an hour away from the University of New Hampshire. The school’s campus is closed Monday and Tuesday in preparation for the storm, leading to the cancellation of First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance at the school on Tuesday. Biden canceled an event Friday that was scheduled to take place in Virginia Beach on Saturday.

Hurricane Sandy weakened to tropical storm status Saturday morning before surging back to hurricane strength. The storm is projected to remain at or near-hurricane strength before interacting with a cold front. Until then, a wide swath of the East Coast waits to see how strong winds will be when they come ashore. As of 8 p.m. Saturday, Sandy had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

“We cannot pinpoint exactly where it’s going to come ashore,” said National Hurricane Center director Dr. Rick Knabb. Knabb said people from Virginia north should be preparing for “weather to go downhill” well into next week.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it would prepare facilities and equipment in the storm’s path with a top priority to keep air traffic control systems up to speed to “support disaster relief efforts.” The FAA said that it’s in close contact with airlines and that in general commercial flights will cease into and out of airports in the storm’s path well ahead of conditions reaching dangerous levels. Many airlines like US Airways, United and American Airlines have relaxed change fees to East Coast cities and are encouraging customers to take preemptive actions. Amtrak also began canceling some Sunday services around New York and Washington, as did bus lines up and down the Northeast.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked the president to declare a disaster before the storm makes landfall to open up the state’s access to FEMA funds. He was later joined in the request by Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), who sent the president a letter late Friday in which she wrote that “due to the anticipated magnitude of Hurricane Sandy, state and local governments in the Hudson Valley may be unable to fully respond without federal assistance.”

Fugate said the timing of such a disaster declaration “does not preclude the assistance that is already going” to states in the storm’s sites, including financial aid.

Disaster-related emergencies have been declared by Cuomo, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue and Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. Both Christie and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell have now announced mandatory evacuations in coastal areas, with Christie suspending some tolls to allow residents to move more quickly on Sunday. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday evening there are no evacuation orders yet in the city.

Vice President Biden campaigned in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday, though not with his son Beau as originally intended, who due to his official duties as attorney general stayed in Delaware.

“He just literally drove down from Wilmington, he was sitting in Air Force Two as we were about to take off,” Biden said according to a pool report. “He called and said, ‘Dad, the governor has just called up the National Guard. I’m going home.’”

Readers' Comments (33)

Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), sent the president a letter late Friday in which she wrote that “due to the anticipated magnitude of Hurricane Sandy, state and local governments in the Hudson Valley may be unable to fully respond without federal assistance.”

These people are all for small government until they need big government.

Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), sent the president a letter late Friday in which she wrote that “due to the anticipated magnitude of Hurricane Sandy, state and local governments in the Hudson Valley may be unable to fully respond without federal assistance.”

These people are all for small government until they need big government.

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I wish I had powerful medicine to cure liberal stupidity.

Nobody is against government, pinhead. We are against wasteful spending of government.

Sandy is as windy as Obama - but not nearly as corrupt and crooked Is voter fraud being committed in Ohio? In the meantime, the Obama Corruptocrat machine is bussing voters to Ohio! Obama taught ACORN how to do that in Chicago! Let's see how good it works in Ohio!

There are plenty of Ohioans ready and eager to vote for Obama or who have already done so -- more than enough to defeat Romney. Political campaigns move staff from state to state as required, it's completely routine, legal, and done by both parties. So just chill with the corruption charges unless you have some proof, okay? Otherwise you just make yourself look silly -- and dishonest, itself a form of corruption.

(( ‘We’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video,” said Hillary Clinton. No, not the person who made the video saying that voting for Barack Obama is like losing your virginity to a really cool guy. I’ll get to that in a moment. But Secretary Clinton was talking about the fellow who made the supposedly Islamophobic video that supposedly set off the sacking of the Benghazi consulate. And, indeed, she did “have that person arrested.” By happy coincidence, his bail hearing has been set for three days after the election, by which time he will have served his purpose. These two videos — the Islamophobic one and the Obamosexual one — bookend the remarkable but wholly deserved collapse of the president’s reelection campaign.

You’ll recall that a near-month-long attempt to blame an obscure YouTube video for the murder of four Americans and the destruction of U.S. sovereign territory climaxed in the vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden’s bald assertion that the administration had been going on the best intelligence it had at the time. By then, it had been confirmed that there never had been any protest against the video, and that the Obama line that Benghazi had been a spontaneous movie review that just got a little out of hand was utterly false. The only remaining question was whether the administration had knowingly lied or was merely innocently stupid. The innocent-stupidity line became harder to maintain this week after Fox News obtained State Department e-mails revealing that shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern, less than a half hour after the assault in Benghazi began, the White House situation room knew the exact nature of it.

We also learned that, in those first moments of the attack, a request for military back-up was made by U.S. staff on the ground but was denied by Washington. It had planes and special forces less than 500 miles away in southern Italy — or about the same distance as Washington to Boston. They could have been there in less than two hours. Yet the commander-in-chief declined to give the order. So Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods fought all night against overwhelming odds, and died on a rooftop in a benighted jihadist hellhole while Obama retired early to rest up before his big Vegas campaign stop. “Within minutes of the first bullet being fired the White House knew these heroes would be slaughtered if immediate air support was denied,” said Ty Woods’s father, Charles. “In less than an hour, the perimeters could have been secured and American lives could have been saved. After seven hours fighting numerically superior forces, my son’s life was sacrificed because of the White House’s decision.”

Why would Obama and Biden do such a thing? Because to launch a military operation against an al-Qaeda affiliate on the anniversary of 9/11 would have exposed the hollowness of their boast through convention week and the days thereafter — that Osama was dead and al-Qaeda was finished. And so Ty Woods, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Chris Stevens were left to die, and a decision taken to blame an entirely irrelevant video and, as Secretary Clinton threatened, “have that person arrested.” And, in the weeks that followed, the government of the United States lied to its own citizens as thoroughly and energetically as any totalitarian state, complete with the midnight knock on the door from not-so-secret policemen sent to haul the designated fall-guy into custody. This goes far beyond the instinctive secretiveness to which even democratic governments are prone. The Obama administration created a wholly fictional story line, and devoted its full resources to maintaining it. ... ))

It won't be long before some leftist loon declares that this hurricane is a "racist plot" to suppress minority voting. The logic will be, blacks and low income people who rely on public services will be most affected by the storm. They may be unable to get to a polling station because of bad weather, etc. I assure you, somebody will claim this.

(( Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reveals details of meeting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the publically broadcast memorial service for the slain Americans at Andrews Air Force Base only days after the attack. And, in a recent radio appearance, Woods publicly questions who made the call not to send in back-up forces to possibly save his son’s life, as well as the three other Americans killed in Benghazi (which includes the American ambassador to Libya).

“When [Obama] came over to our little area” at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, “he kind of just mumbled, you know, ‘I’m sorry.’ His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that your son died,’ but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, ‘I’m sorry.’”

Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son’s memorial service was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.”

“It just didn’t feel right,” he says of his encounter with the commander in chief. “And now that it’s coming out that apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening,” Woods says, he wants answers on what happened—and why there was no apparent effort to save his son’s life.

“Well, this is what Hillary did,” Woods continues. “She came over and, you know, did the same thing—separately came over and talked with me. I gave her a hug, shook her hand. And she did not appear to be one bit sincere—at all. And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video. That was the first time I had even heard about anything like that.”

Woods continues: “Apparently even the State Department had a live stream and was aware of their calls for help. My son wasn't even there. He was at a safe house about a mile away. He got the distress call; he heard them crying for help; that’s why he and Glen risked their lives to go that extra mile just to take care of the situation. And I’m sure that wasn't the only one received that distress call—you know, come save our lives … I’m sure that other people in the military, in the State Department, in the White House, received that same call that he would receive. And I’m sure that most military people would jump at the chance … to protect that life [and] not leave anyone behind.” ))

Hey MSM - please, please run this frankenstorm crap because it turns out Americans care about an ambassador being murdered and us not helping. In return, I'll give you more access and spend less time on the View this time around. Promise. Mean it. Love you.

my buddy's sister got paid $20508 a month ago. she is making income on the internet and moved in a $565900 home. All she did was get fortunate and put in action the steps explained on this web page http://www.Mid12.com

Barack Obama is a lying, unpatriotic, b*llsh*tting, abamanation who would rather go to Las Vegas to pull slots then worry about the assassination of his personal representative to Libya. What a disgusting leader we have in the White House....

Nobody is against government, pinhead. We are against wasteful spending of government.

You say, but then you're a "liberal." Grover Norquist said he wants government shrunk "until it's small enough to drown in a bathtub," hardly a government-friendly sentiment. And all the mentally challenged Republicans who signed the Norquist pledge are giving their indirect endorsement of that anti-government sentiment. Republicans, in general, run against government, agreeing with “Bedtime For Bozo” Reagan, who said, "Government's the problem, not the solution." Of course, in this case, as in all natural disasters, government is the solution (pinhead Republicans are the problem).

Give them a break, okay? Quit trying to make some monumental 9/11 out of it. Let them rest in peace. TODAY 134 Americans died "preventable deaths" because they had no health insurance and couldn't afford treatment. Some 48,000 die such deaths each and every year. Romney & Ryan promise to insure that continues to happen by repealing Obamacare, because, really, when it comes to the uninsured the Republicans say, "Drop dead."

It's quite amazing to read all of the comments from republicans and "tea party" members on these postings tonight.Do you guys actually think that anybody believes you people have a real concern about the four Americans slain in Libya by terrorists ????.Few of you could care less about the Americans killed by terrorists. Your only wish is to use Libya for your own political gain,and to benefit Mitt Romney.That is really pathetic.I actually believe the majority of you guys would be secretly happy if perhaps 50 Americans would have been killed,as it might help your political goals.The terrorists must love all of you conservatives........THEY kill our Americans,and instead of outrage against them,you attack our president and attempt to tear our country apart internally.It is no wonder that the republicans and tea party have such a low approval in this country.The sad part is that in reality,the vast,vast majority of those making Libya into a political issue care nothing about those slain.This is a fact.You may be desperate to help Romney win the election...but to do it with the blood of loyal Americans spilled by terrorists against America is what is REALLY disgusting !!!!.